Very generally, a typical electrical connector combination includes a plug connector and a receptacle connector, both of which mount or house interengageable electrical terminals. The plug connector is inserted into or mated with the receptacle connector to interengage the terminals. The terminals may take a variety of configurations, including male and female or pin and socket terminals.
A known type of female socket terminal is elongated and has a terminating end and a contact end. The terminating end may be adapted for termination to an electrical wire, for instance. The contact end is box-shaped or generally rectangular in cross-section for receiving a male or pin contact or terminal. The female socket terminal typically is stamped and formed from sheet metal material, and spring sections may be stamped therefrom for resiliently gripping the pin contact or terminal. On the other hand, separate spring contact elements have been used with such female socket terminals.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,428, dated Aug. 15, 1995, a female socket terminal employs a separate spring element to resiliently grip an inserted pin contact or terminal. In particular, the female socket terminal disclosed therein is generally rectangular in cross-section and includes a bottom plate portion having two sides. A pair of opposing side plate portions extend upwardly from both sides of the bottom plate portion. Two lug engagement holes are formed in the two side plate portions immediately adjacent the bottom plate portion. A pair of opposing top plate half portions extend inwardly from upper ends of the side plate portions. A spring element is mounted within the female terminal and includes a spring body and a pair of lug portions engaged within the lug engagement holes formed in the two side plates portions near the bottom plate portion. During assembly, the top plate half portions and the side plate portions are spread apart to allow insertion of the spring element transverse to the longitudinal direction of the terminal until the lug portions of the spring element engage within the lug engagement holes formed in the two side plate portions near the bottom wall.
Problems are encountered with female socket terminals as described above in relation to the U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,428. In particular, the spring element that grips the mating pin contact or terminal is mounted against the bottom plate portion of the female terminal and biases the male terminal upwardly against the top plate half portions which are joined at an open seam. This tends to open the seam and spread the opposing side plate portions of the female terminal which, in turn, reduces the contact forces on the mating male terminal. In addition, spreading and closing the female terminal tends to eventually loosen the intended interconnection. Lastly, assembling the spring element into the box-shaped female terminal transverse to the longitudinal direction of the terminal is a costly and cumbersome procedure.
An improved female electrical terminal for solving these problems is shown in copending application Ser. No. 08/565,750, filed Dec. 1, 1995 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. With the structure of the female electrical terminal shown and described therein, the male terminal is biased against the solid bottom wall of the contact end rather than upwardly against the top half walls and the open seam. Therefore, there is no tendency to spread the contact end apart. In addition, the spring contact element may be more easily assembled into the contact end longitudinally of the terminal rather than transversely thereof. The terminal includes other improved features.
Another improved female electrical terminal which solves the above problems is shown in copending application Ser. No. 08/583,833, filed Jan. 11, 1996 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. With the structure of the female electrical terminal disclosed and described therein, the spring contact element is again located in the contact end inside the top wall and adapted to bias the male terminal into engagement with the bottom wall. The spring contact element includes a generally rectangular mounting section with side wall portions juxtaposed inside the opposing side walls at the contact end of the female terminal. Complementary interengaging latch means are provided between the opposing side walls and the side wall portions of the mounting section of the spring contact element. Abutment means are provided on the bottom wall to prevent inward collapsing of the side wall portions and, thereby, to maintain the latch means in interengagement. This improved female terminal is more reliable, and provides greater stability for the spring contact element and is easier to manufacture than the prior art shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,428.
One additional prior art problem i.e. deformation of electrical conductor crimping arms at different heights is solved by addition of notches on the inside surfaces of the crimping arms. The present invention again is directed to solving the above problems and providing a further improved box-type female socket terminal which is reliable and easy to manufacture.